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Talk:Open source software
Open source and politics The open source model not only applies to technology and economics, but also to politics. http://www.WorldChanging.com Open Source "enables previously technologically-dependent communities to build the tools that they need with their own skills, and become a global participant as a producer of ideas, not simply a consumer," says World Changing's Jamais Cascio. The United Nations University's International Institute for Software Technology has fully embraced the idea of open source as a developmental driver. It is "technological self-determination." How will government and development change when it is built on a model where all voices are included and the collective makes the enteprise? Structurally embedded grass roots democracy; embedded down to the level of the source code, is a beautiful thing. Use open source software for the upsides of control and community. Control An organization can control its own activities via software choices. Open source software can be adapted to better suit the workflow to match important values to better fit the organization. For example, school administration software can be customized. Generally, organizations below a certain size do not normally do much with software changes since they don't have the resources or interests to do so. Open source changes those handicaps. Community Open source software fosters a community approach to software development and use. Users and developers, once a critical mass is reached, push development in directions they are interested in. This is also affected by institutional needs particularly if they are paid developers for the institutions involved. A more vibrant dynamic with community is found within open source software settings. Traditional software vendors with shrinkwrap applications and more expensive customization options have little community benefit. Background * FLOSS = Free/Libre and Open Source Software * Proprietary software is NOT FLOSS Proprietary software comes at no cost for the great majority of developing country users, thanks to piracy. Let's put Pittsburgh into the lead in an active, global community of like-minded technology workers. We want software developers to engage with and in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Free and Open Source Software plays a giant role with the server market and less of a role in the desktop of regular users. FLOSS runs the internet. To get a role in the global movement with the internet, we need to specialize in FLOSS. Finland and some other tech capitals are more open to FLOSS, and have past America. Free software offers the freedom to be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. Pirated and proprietary software is not only illegal but shallow for the users in terms of stretching their logic. FLOSS has lower barriers to entry. FLOSS gives powers of localisation, diminishes hurdles for "techies and amateurs" compared with "professionals and degree holders." FLOSS allows for more innovation and bigger impacts. Free/Libre and Open Source Software projects are better able to cope with disasters. People don't have to spend money earmarked for food on software. OpenNGO.org network is "an open source project to create a set of web-based tools designed to meet the needs of small U.S. nonprofit organizations and non-governmental organizations across the globe. Meanwhile, another strong debate continued at the Global Knowledge for Development mailing-list, visible at the archives here 15. Some supported Heeks views, while others said academia was missing the point on FLOSS. Said Mark Davies (mark@busylab.com): "As an African business, and as an African software development business, I still don't get it. There's so much enthusiasm for FOSS, there's so much conference mind-share spent on this topic, and yet I don't see an illuminating discussion about the opportunities for risk/reward for people like us." 16 After facing a lot of counterpoints, Heeks responded: "You can read this message in two ways: either that FOSS will never deliver; or that the FOSS community needs to rethink its strategies. Or, of course, if you've devoted months or years to FOSS and don't like the message, you'll try to denigrate the writer, deny the data, and so forth." 17 Klaus Stoll the president of Fundacion Chasquinet 18 in Quito, Ecuador also swam against the tide. He wrote: "...yes, my organization Chasquinet Foundation works with Microsoft and yes it is the same organization that produced and published the Open Source tollbox for Telecenters in Latin America 19 and yes we have as a policy in our organization that people should have a right to choose. What counts for us here at the grassroots are real ICT tools for Development, be they open source or otherwise, what counts is if they make a real positive impact in improving peoples lives." African NGO Kaibassa argued here20: "We at Kabissa have a very practical orientation and don't really push Open Source in our trainings or through our services and Web site unless it's just staring in our faces as just plain better. Open Source Content Management Systems and other server-based tools and desktop applications like Firefox and Thunderbird spring straight to mind. In the meantime, I hope you and other software developers in Africa are aware of and considering attending Africa Source II." But one key perspective came from Richard "RMS" Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation 21. He commented: "The choice between free (freedom-respecting) and proprietary (user-subjugating) software is not a technical choice. It is an ethical and political issue about people's freedom. To be neutral on issues that merely concern technology is fine. To be neutral on ethical and political issues about freedom is nothing to be proud of." 1 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers 2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6855 3 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6849 4 http://www.socialsourcefoundation.org/ 5 http://www.mahiti.org/ 6 mzdid10@fs1.ec.man.ac.uk 7 http://www.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/dig/briefings.htm 8 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6769 9 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6794 10 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6775 11 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6848 12 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6855 13 http://www.socialsourcefoundation.org/ 14 http://www.openngo.org/ 15 http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/2005/Oct/ 16 http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/2005/Oct/0321.html 17 http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/2005/Oct/0319.html 18 http://www.chasquinet.org 19 http://tele-centros.org/tc-toolkit2.0/ 20 http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/2005/Oct/0334.html 21 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/6837 External Links * Business Week article on Open Source Software investments * Local Blogger talks about Rules for Open Souce Investing * Open Source Medicine event in NYC :UNU-MERIT holds Research Symposium on “Open Source” and “Open Medicine” at UN Headquarters :Can an Intellectual Property regime designed to protect private interests be reformed to open up standards and knowledge? What results when government authorities promote free, open source software in their jurisdictions? Who (if anyone) should own or control access to the human genome sequence? What parallels can be drawn with the fundamental principles of 'openness' for science and society as a whole? : These are among the issues to be discussed at a Research Symposium titled Challenging Intellectual Property Access to Knowledge Issues in Open Source and Medicine, at the UN Headquarters, New York, on 13 April 2006 . The event is co-organized by the United Nations University -Office at the United Nations, New York , and UNU-MERIT.